As the Army eyes deploying its first operational hypersonic weapon battery by the end of year, a lead official on Wednesday detailed the eventual transition of the program to the service’s Program Executive Office Missiles and Space.
Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch, who leads the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) that has overseen development of the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon, affirmed recent comments from senior Army leaders that the program is on track to field the first live missile rounds to the unit operating the initial battery of the new weapon system before the end of 2023.
“It’s going to happen. We’re not there yet. I’m not here popping the champagne bottle right here on the stage, but we’re going to get there. I have confidence in the industry team and I have confidence in our team to get back out to prove this capability,” Rasch said during remarks at the Space & Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama. “There’s missiles lined up in various stages of production, ready to finish buttoning up and get those out to the field.”
Rasch noted once the first operational LRHW is fielded that RCCTO’s work on the program will be completed and it will officially transition over to PEO Missiles and Space, which will then oversee work on subsequent batteries beyond the initial capability, sustainment efforts, future design improvements.
“A vast majority of [RCCTO’s LRHW] team is moving with the program to ensure we have continuity,” Rasch said. “Before we even started building the first missile, the requirement to provide upgrades to that were laid out in a pretty well-defined plan between the Army and Navy. And those technology insertions, as we call them, are laid out in a plan. So as we get the first capability out and the first missiles to support that, [we’re] already working on the [science and technology efforts] for the second and the third and the fourth iterations of those technology insertions.”
The Army’s LRHW, which has been in development for about four years, will share the same all-up missile round and canister as well as the Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) with the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike program.
In 2019, the Army chose Lockheed Martin [LMT] to serve as the weapon systems integrator for the LRHW, which will be fired from a truck, while Dynetics [LDOS] is tasked with producing the C-HGB
Lockheed Martin has previously said the company’s objective is to produce 24 hypersonic all-up missile rounds per year (Defense Daily, Oct. 13 2021).
The Army completed fielding of the ground equipment for its first prototype hypersonic weapon battery, minus the live rounds, in the fall of 2021 to the soldiers from the I Corps’ 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington and who have been testing on the equipment since then.
[There was] testing to make sure they can set the equipment up and take it down, make sure they can maintain it. Flying that equipment all over the country, sometimes on mainland, sometimes off the continental U.S. to make sure we could transport it. Testing that kill chain multiple times, from STRATCOM to the combatant commands all the way down to that soldier in the battle operations center. All of that was happening over the last two years and those soldiers out there are ready,” Rasch said on Wednesday.
While senior Army officials have noted details of the joint flight campaign and live testing are classified, Rasch noted there will be another upcoming hypersonic weapon test with the Navy “in the near future” ahead of the fielding later this year.
“We’re going to prepare and get out to the range again here in the near future to validate that design. We’re going to complete that unit certification. We’re going to deliver that first round and then the remaining rounds to the soldiers to have that first capability done,” Rasch said.
The Army and Navy canceled a hypersonic missile test planned for March 5 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida following an issue flagged during pre-flight checks (Defense Daily, March 10).